The purpose of this unit is to introduce the topic of Human Impact on the Earth's Resources to the students, which is a real-life issue that the students will hear about in the news and directly affects their own lives. I will use this real life issue to teach the following subtopics in the 3rd Quarter subject of Natural Resources: human population growth, human impact on land, air, and water. One activity that I want students to complete during this unit is that students will have to find a newspaper article, that relates to Global Climate Change, summarize it, and say how it relates to these topics. This is designed so that students will realize that this is an everyday, current issue in the news, and hopefully this will stress the importance of the topic to them.
By the end of the unit, I want students to understand the human impact on Earth, why it is so important, and how students can reduce their impact on the Earth. I want students to be able to describe what they can do in their everyday lives to combat issues we have discussed. I feel that this is the most important part of the unit, because students are taking what they learned throughout the unit, and making connections and applying it to their own lives.
Learning Performances and Standards
Life Science GSEs:
LS2 - Matter cycles and energy flows through and ecosystems.
LS2 (9-11) -3 Students demonstrate an understanding of equilibrium in an ecosystem by …
3a defining and giving an example of equilibrium in an ecosystem.
3b describing ways in which humans can modify ecosystems and describe and predict the potential impact (e.g. human population growth; technology; destruction of habitats; agriculture; pollution; and atmospheric changes).
Example Extension(s) LS2 (Ext) - 3 Students demonstrate an understanding of equilibrium in an ecosystem by …
3bb researching and citing evidence of global warming to describe the potential impact on both the living and physical systems on Earth.
National Standards:
Unifying Concepts and Processes:
Systems, Order, and Organization
Evidence, Models, and Explanation
Change, Constancy, and Measurement
Science as Inquiry:
Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
Science in Personal and Social Perspectives:
Populations, resources, and environments
Concept Map of the Concepts Addressed in the Unit
Overview: Throughout a series of 7 block class periods, I want students to be able to have an understanding of our impact on the Earth. I want students to analyze graphs that describe the human populations growth. I want students to identify reason for human population growth. I then want students to understand how much resources are used and waste is produced from one human being and how this affects the earth. I then want students to understand how our land is currently being used, and how this currently affects the earth. I want students to brainstorm and research things that students can do to help protect and help the environment. I want students to understand the concept of renew, reuse, and recycle. I want students to complete a series of labs and mini-labs that are based on inquiry.
Each lesson will open with some kind of hook, either an anticipation guide, an image with thought provoking questions, etc.
I will open my unit with a lesson plan that has an inquiry based activity, where students are given growth population graphs of different species, and are asked to answer one main question, "What does this graph say?" Students are asked to analyze and interpret the graphs, through group discussion and through completing the guiding questions provided on the given worksheet. Students are then asked to take what they have learned from this activity, and apply it to a graph of the human population growth. Students are asked to use what they learned from the previous activity, apply it to the human population growth graph, and come to the conclusion that humans are using up the Earth's resources, and will eventually reach their carrying capacity. This is why it is important that we learn about the Human Impact on Resources.
Following the opening lesson, there will be lessons on the Human Impact on Land, Air, and Water. There will also be a lesson on Global Warming, where students will have to find a current event article and present it to the class. Students will then apply the information they have gathered about global warming and can choose to create a bumper sticker or a rap about Global Warming, depending on their personal preferences. To close the unit, we will play a fly swatter review game and take a Unit Test.
Lesson Sequence
NOTE: Each day has a lesson plan developed for a 90 minute block period.
Day 1 - Population and Use of Natural Resources: The first lesson plan of this unit is designed to introduce students to the entire unit topic. Here students are given growth population graphs of different species, and are asked to answer one main question, "What does this graph say?" Students are asked to analyze and interpret the graphs, through group discussion and through completing the guiding questions provided on the given worksheet. Students are then asked to take what they have learned from this activity, and apply it to a graph of the human population growth. Students should be able to come to the conclusion through the inquiry activity, that humans are approaching their carrying capacity through consumption of the Earth's resources. This is why it is important to learn about the human impact on natural resources.
Day 2 - Human Impact on Land Resources: This is the second lesson in my unit plan on Natural Resources. This lesson focuses on the Human Impact on Land Resources. As an opening to the lesson, I will have the students work individually and brainstorm the question I have put up on the board: "What things do you dispose of every day? Be specific." After individually completing the brainstorming activity, students will share their answers with the class, while I record a class list labeled, "What we dispose of" on the smart board. I will ask the students, "Where does it all go? How can we reduce the amount of solid waste we produce everyday?" and remind students that we tend to forget about our solid waste after we dispose of it in the trash. For the engagement part of the lesson, the class will watch a ten minute PBS video clip entitled "Landfill-Heath Concerns." After watching the video, I will ask students if they got any more ideas from the video, that we could add to our list on the smart board. Students will briefly take notes for about 10-15 minutes from a PowerPoint which highlights important concepts in this section of the book. As an inquiry based activity students will be separated into groups of 4, and will have to complete the Reducing Waste Committee Activity. Each committee of students is given a different product that consumers buy everyday, that uses a lot of packaging, and therefore produces a lot of solid waste. The group of students will have to produce a list of suggestions to the company of the product, suggesting ways to reduce the amount of packaging for the product or perhaps using different, recyclable materials for packaging. As a closing, we will revisit our main question of the day, "How can we reduce the amount of solid waste we produce everyday?"
Day 3 - Human Impact on Air Resources: This is lesson three in a series of lessons that focus on the Human Impact on the Earth. This lesson specifically focuses on the Human Impact on Air Resources. Here, students are introduced to global warming, smog, acid precipitation, and air pollution. To open the lesson, I have students answer questions about three global warming cartoons. Students then identify major concepts and vocabulary in this section by completing a worksheet. After, students use real data provided from the Environmental Protection Agency, depicting various pollutants in the air. Students complete an inquiry based lab activity with the given data, by creating a line graph, then interpreting and analyzing the graphs while answering questions. Students must apply the data and their graph trends to support their answers. To close the lesson, students are asked to answer the same questions I asked during the opening of my lesson, "What is global warming? Does it affect you and I?" Students for homework are asked to find additional research on this topic, by finding a current event article.
Day 4 - Global Warming and Article Presentations: The student's homework from the night before was to find a global warming or climate change, current event article that looked interesting to them and read it. The article could come from online, as long as it was no more than 2 years old, or from the newspaper. As an opening to this lesson, students will go around the room and briefly summarize and explain the article that they found. After listening to the student's articles, students will brainstorm and formulate ways that they can help combat this issue of global warming in their everyday lives. Students will then apply this information they shared as a class and create either a bumper sticker or a rap that informs people about this global warming issue or what they can do to combat global warming. The bumper stickers should be eye catching and to the point, yet informative and thoughtful. The rap should be creative, appropriate, and informative about the global warming issue. The bumper stickers and raps will be graded as a quiz grade.
Day 5 - Human Impact on Water Resources: This is the last lesson in a series of lessons focusing on the Human Impact on Natural Resources. This lesson plan focuses on the Human Impact on Water Resources. First, students get a chance to calculate their daily water usage, to see how dependent humans are on our water resource and why it is so important to prevent water pollution. Second, students identify, and compare and contrast the differences between the two main types of water pollution, point sources and non point sources. Students then investigate various samples of water, testing if they are safe to drink or not, by completing the, "Is your Water Clean?" Lab. After this lesson, students will have an understanding of the human dependency on water, types of water pollution, and will investigate if water samples are safe for consumption or not.
Day 6 - Create a Human Impact on the Earth Informational Pamphlet: Apply the information we have learned to create a three fold pamphlet containing information about the impact of humans on this earth. Students must include ways that you and other people can help combat these issues. I will encourage students to utilize their notes and text books to complete this assignment. Students will be allowed to work with a partner. This project will count as a test/project grade and will serve as a study guide for the test.
Day 7 - Fly Swatter Review Game and Test: Before the test, students will be split up into groups and play together to compete for bonus points on the test. I will place note cards with important vocabulary terms on them on the students desk. Students will be given fly swatters to play the game. I will read the definition or clue to the vocabulary word, and the first student in the group to slap the vocabulary word with their fly swatter wins a point for their team. The students with the most points at the end of the game, will get bonus points on their test. The review quiz game gives students to activate their knowledge about the the topics we have covered, and gets them in the correct frame of mind to take a test. After the review game, a test will be given to close the unit.
Plan B: Additional Activities to include if needed:
(In case a lesson "bombs" or finishes quicker than expected)
Can also be used for future unit plans:
Create a word poem using a vocabulary word.
Create an advertisement. "For sale..."
Create a fake Facebook page for the Earth
Create a fake Myspace page for the Earth
Create your own review game
Create a study guide
Create a flip book (for processes with steps)
Create a "Want Ad"
Create a bumper sticker
Create a public service announcement
Create a TV commercial
Create and perform a skit
Create a rap/poem
Create a children's book
Games:
Bingo - Vocabulary game.
Jepoardy
Who wants to be a millionaire? Quiz game
Assessment Plan
In order to assess student's learning, I will use a series of formative and summative assessments.
Formative Assessments:
The formative assessments that I will be conducting throughout this lesson plan include probing questions throughout each lesson, the opening activity questions, the anticipation guide (to assess their prior knowledge on the topic), and mini activities that are embedded within each lesson. These assessments are described more in detail in each lesson plan outline. Each of these formative assessments, tells me what the students already know about a topic, what I need to reteach, and if the students are getting it or not. Formative assessments give the teacher an idea of what a student knows, without giving a formal, summative test. These are important to conduct everyday, to see where students are, with respect to the content you are trying to cover.
Summative Assessments:
The summative assessment will take place in the last lesson plan, after the review game. The summative assessment tests the students' knowledge of the entire unit on the Human Impact of Resources. The test includes topics and concepts from each lesson plan. The summative assessment will be set up in the same test format that I have been using on previous tests, so the students are familiar with the format and can focus on the material. The test will have students use all four levels of Webb's Depth of Knowledge. The students will have to be able to recall vocabulary words, show understanding of major concepts and processes, and be able to apply these concepts to strategic thinking and extended thinking questions. A summative assessment, is a tool the teacher uses to assess and guage how much knowledge of a topic a student has learned throughout a unit.
Rationale
I think that I made this topic is meaningful to students by showing how this topic directly affects their life. The unit lesson is entitled "Human Impact on Resources". I really want students by the end of the unit to have learned about how humans impact the land, air, and water, and then be able to take what they have learned, and make changes in their everyday life to help the environment. My intent is to make this entire unit very easy to understand for the students. For the inquiry portion of the lesson plan, I want students to analyze growth population graphs, and be able to interpret and describe why the graphs look the way they do. A series of mini labs and labs will be conducted as hands-on, inquiry based learning. Also I want students to look in the newspaper and find an article that relates to climate change, or any of the above listed topics and summarize it, explain it to the class, and maybe research the topic more to explain the topic to the entire class in a quick presentation. I want students to be able to conclude that there is a limited amount of resources on this planet, and that there are things they can do to help.
I tried to make each lesson mostly all student-centered, rather than teacher-centered. I did this by having the students complete exploratory hands-on activities. I kept in mind that in order to make these lessons student-centered, the students needed to be doing the work and formulating their own ideas and conclusions. I tried to keep the teacher-centered lectures to the bare minimum necessary. I sequenced the lessons in the same order their book does, to support the student's understanding. This will also help students make sense of the material on their own if they are ever struggling, because they can use their book as a resource. I sequenced the lessons in a logical way, that builds on each lesson the day before. I set the foundation for this lesson, on the first day by exploring population growth and the consumption of natural resources. The next lessons focus on the human impact on land, air, and water, respectively. I then take what they have learned about these topics and apply it to an everyday, current event topic, Global Warming. The sequence of the lessons, help students to make sense of the material in an organized, logical manner. Throughout class discussion and reading reflections, I have always stressed my belief in making connections. I believe that if students can connect what they are learning to something outside of school, something that they do everyday, they will retain the information. I also believe that you have to get students to care about what they are learning, by showing them how or why it directly affects them. Students are more likely to pay attention, and retain the material, if they know why they are learning about it, and how it affects their daily life. I kept these ideas in mind throughout creating my unit plan, and therefore my unit plan is built around these beliefs.
Title: Human Impact on Resources
Author: Dania Schnell
Grade Level: 9th Grade Honors
Course: Earth Science
Purpose of Unit
The purpose of this unit is to introduce the topic of Human Impact on the Earth's Resources to the students, which is a real-life issue that the students will hear about in the news and directly affects their own lives. I will use this real life issue to teach the following subtopics in the 3rd Quarter subject of Natural Resources: human population growth, human impact on land, air, and water. One activity that I want students to complete during this unit is that students will have to find a newspaper article, that relates to Global Climate Change, summarize it, and say how it relates to these topics. This is designed so that students will realize that this is an everyday, current issue in the news, and hopefully this will stress the importance of the topic to them.
By the end of the unit, I want students to understand the human impact on Earth, why it is so important, and how students can reduce their impact on the Earth. I want students to be able to describe what they can do in their everyday lives to combat issues we have discussed. I feel that this is the most important part of the unit, because students are taking what they learned throughout the unit, and making connections and applying it to their own lives.
Learning Performances and Standards
Life Science GSEs:
LS2 - Matter cycles and energy flows through and ecosystems.
LS2 (9-11) -3
Students demonstrate an understanding of equilibrium in an ecosystem by …
3a defining and giving an example of equilibrium in an ecosystem.
3b describing ways in which humans can modify ecosystems and describe and predict the potential impact (e.g. human population growth; technology; destruction of habitats; agriculture; pollution; and atmospheric changes).
Example Extension(s)
LS2 (Ext) - 3
Students demonstrate an understanding of equilibrium in an ecosystem by …
3bb researching and citing evidence of global warming to describe the potential impact on both the living and physical systems on Earth.
National Standards:
Unifying Concepts and Processes:
- Systems, Order, and Organization
- Evidence, Models, and Explanation
- Change, Constancy, and Measurement
Science as Inquiry:- Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
Science in Personal and Social Perspectives:Concept Map of the Concepts Addressed in the Unit
Overview: Throughout a series of 7 block class periods, I want students to be able to have an understanding of our impact on the Earth. I want students to analyze graphs that describe the human populations growth. I want students to identify reason for human population growth. I then want students to understand how much resources are used and waste is produced from one human being and how this affects the earth. I then want students to understand how our land is currently being used, and how this currently affects the earth. I want students to brainstorm and research things that students can do to help protect and help the environment. I want students to understand the concept of renew, reuse, and recycle. I want students to complete a series of labs and mini-labs that are based on inquiry.
Each lesson will open with some kind of hook, either an anticipation guide, an image with thought provoking questions, etc.
I will open my unit with a lesson plan that has an inquiry based activity, where students are given growth population graphs of different species, and are asked to answer one main question, "What does this graph say?" Students are asked to analyze and interpret the graphs, through group discussion and through completing the guiding questions provided on the given worksheet. Students are then asked to take what they have learned from this activity, and apply it to a graph of the human population growth. Students are asked to use what they learned from the previous activity, apply it to the human population growth graph, and come to the conclusion that humans are using up the Earth's resources, and will eventually reach their carrying capacity. This is why it is important that we learn about the Human Impact on Resources.
Following the opening lesson, there will be lessons on the Human Impact on Land, Air, and Water. There will also be a lesson on Global Warming, where students will have to find a current event article and present it to the class. Students will then apply the information they have gathered about global warming and can choose to create a bumper sticker or a rap about Global Warming, depending on their personal preferences. To close the unit, we will play a fly swatter review game and take a Unit Test.
Lesson Sequence
NOTE: Each day has a lesson plan developed for a 90 minute block period.
Day 1 - Population and Use of Natural Resources: The first lesson plan of this unit is designed to introduce students to the entire unit topic. Here students are given growth population graphs of different species, and are asked to answer one main question, "What does this graph say?" Students are asked to analyze and interpret the graphs, through group discussion and through completing the guiding questions provided on the given worksheet. Students are then asked to take what they have learned from this activity, and apply it to a graph of the human population growth. Students should be able to come to the conclusion through the inquiry activity, that humans are approaching their carrying capacity through consumption of the Earth's resources. This is why it is important to learn about the human impact on natural resources.
Day 2 - Human Impact on Land Resources: This is the second lesson in my unit plan on Natural Resources. This lesson focuses on the Human Impact on Land Resources. As an opening to the lesson, I will have the students work individually and brainstorm the question I have put up on the board: "What things do you dispose of every day? Be specific." After individually completing the brainstorming activity, students will share their answers with the class, while I record a class list labeled, "What we dispose of" on the smart board. I will ask the students, "Where does it all go? How can we reduce the amount of solid waste we produce everyday?" and remind students that we tend to forget about our solid waste after we dispose of it in the trash. For the engagement part of the lesson, the class will watch a ten minute PBS video clip entitled "Landfill-Heath Concerns." After watching the video, I will ask students if they got any more ideas from the video, that we could add to our list on the smart board. Students will briefly take notes for about 10-15 minutes from a PowerPoint which highlights important concepts in this section of the book. As an inquiry based activity students will be separated into groups of 4, and will have to complete the Reducing Waste Committee Activity. Each committee of students is given a different product that consumers buy everyday, that uses a lot of packaging, and therefore produces a lot of solid waste. The group of students will have to produce a list of suggestions to the company of the product, suggesting ways to reduce the amount of packaging for the product or perhaps using different, recyclable materials for packaging. As a closing, we will revisit our main question of the day, "How can we reduce the amount of solid waste we produce everyday?"
Day 3 - Human Impact on Air Resources: This is lesson three in a series of lessons that focus on the Human Impact on the Earth. This lesson specifically focuses on the Human Impact on Air Resources. Here, students are introduced to global warming, smog, acid precipitation, and air pollution. To open the lesson, I have students answer questions about three global warming cartoons. Students then identify major concepts and vocabulary in this section by completing a worksheet. After, students use real data provided from the Environmental Protection Agency, depicting various pollutants in the air. Students complete an inquiry based lab activity with the given data, by creating a line graph, then interpreting and analyzing the graphs while answering questions. Students must apply the data and their graph trends to support their answers. To close the lesson, students are asked to answer the same questions I asked during the opening of my lesson, "What is global warming? Does it affect you and I?" Students for homework are asked to find additional research on this topic, by finding a current event article.
Day 4 - Global Warming and Article Presentations: The student's homework from the night before was to find a global warming or climate change, current event article that looked interesting to them and read it. The article could come from online, as long as it was no more than 2 years old, or from the newspaper. As an opening to this lesson, students will go around the room and briefly summarize and explain the article that they found. After listening to the student's articles, students will brainstorm and formulate ways that they can help combat this issue of global warming in their everyday lives. Students will then apply this information they shared as a class and create either a bumper sticker or a rap that informs people about this global warming issue or what they can do to combat global warming. The bumper stickers should be eye catching and to the point, yet informative and thoughtful. The rap should be creative, appropriate, and informative about the global warming issue. The bumper stickers and raps will be graded as a quiz grade.
Day 5 - Human Impact on Water Resources: This is the last lesson in a series of lessons focusing on the Human Impact on Natural Resources. This lesson plan focuses on the Human Impact on Water Resources. First, students get a chance to calculate their daily water usage, to see how dependent humans are on our water resource and why it is so important to prevent water pollution. Second, students identify, and compare and contrast the differences between the two main types of water pollution, point sources and non point sources. Students then investigate various samples of water, testing if they are safe to drink or not, by completing the, "Is your Water Clean?" Lab. After this lesson, students will have an understanding of the human dependency on water, types of water pollution, and will investigate if water samples are safe for consumption or not.
Day 6 - Create a Human Impact on the Earth Informational Pamphlet: Apply the information we have learned to create a three fold pamphlet containing information about the impact of humans on this earth. Students must include ways that you and other people can help combat these issues. I will encourage students to utilize their notes and text books to complete this assignment. Students will be allowed to work with a partner. This project will count as a test/project grade and will serve as a study guide for the test.
Day 7 - Fly Swatter Review Game and Test: Before the test, students will be split up into groups and play together to compete for bonus points on the test. I will place note cards with important vocabulary terms on them on the students desk. Students will be given fly swatters to play the game. I will read the definition or clue to the vocabulary word, and the first student in the group to slap the vocabulary word with their fly swatter wins a point for their team. The students with the most points at the end of the game, will get bonus points on their test. The review quiz game gives students to activate their knowledge about the the topics we have covered, and gets them in the correct frame of mind to take a test. After the review game, a test will be given to close the unit.
Plan B: Additional Activities to include if needed:
(In case a lesson "bombs" or finishes quicker than expected)
Can also be used for future unit plans:
Assessment Plan
In order to assess student's learning, I will use a series of formative and summative assessments.Formative Assessments:
The formative assessments that I will be conducting throughout this lesson plan include probing questions throughout each lesson, the opening activity questions, the anticipation guide (to assess their prior knowledge on the topic), and mini activities that are embedded within each lesson. These assessments are described more in detail in each lesson plan outline. Each of these formative assessments, tells me what the students already know about a topic, what I need to reteach, and if the students are getting it or not. Formative assessments give the teacher an idea of what a student knows, without giving a formal, summative test. These are important to conduct everyday, to see where students are, with respect to the content you are trying to cover.
Summative Assessments:
The summative assessment will take place in the last lesson plan, after the review game. The summative assessment tests the students' knowledge of the entire unit on the Human Impact of Resources. The test includes topics and concepts from each lesson plan. The summative assessment will be set up in the same test format that I have been using on previous tests, so the students are familiar with the format and can focus on the material. The test will have students use all four levels of Webb's Depth of Knowledge. The students will have to be able to recall vocabulary words, show understanding of major concepts and processes, and be able to apply these concepts to strategic thinking and extended thinking questions. A summative assessment, is a tool the teacher uses to assess and guage how much knowledge of a topic a student has learned throughout a unit.
Rationale
I think that I made this topic is meaningful to students by showing how this topic directly affects their life. The unit lesson is entitled "Human Impact on Resources". I really want students by the end of the unit to have learned about how humans impact the land, air, and water, and then be able to take what they have learned, and make changes in their everyday life to help the environment. My intent is to make this entire unit very easy to understand for the students. For the inquiry portion of the lesson plan, I want students to analyze growth population graphs, and be able to interpret and describe why the graphs look the way they do. A series of mini labs and labs will be conducted as hands-on, inquiry based learning. Also I want students to look in the newspaper and find an article that relates to climate change, or any of the above listed topics and summarize it, explain it to the class, and maybe research the topic more to explain the topic to the entire class in a quick presentation. I want students to be able to conclude that there is a limited amount of resources on this planet, and that there are things they can do to help.
I tried to make each lesson mostly all student-centered, rather than teacher-centered. I did this by having the students complete exploratory hands-on activities. I kept in mind that in order to make these lessons student-centered, the students needed to be doing the work and formulating their own ideas and conclusions. I tried to keep the teacher-centered lectures to the bare minimum necessary. I sequenced the lessons in the same order their book does, to support the student's understanding. This will also help students make sense of the material on their own if they are ever struggling, because they can use their book as a resource. I sequenced the lessons in a logical way, that builds on each lesson the day before. I set the foundation for this lesson, on the first day by exploring population growth and the consumption of natural resources. The next lessons focus on the human impact on land, air, and water, respectively. I then take what they have learned about these topics and apply it to an everyday, current event topic, Global Warming. The sequence of the lessons, help students to make sense of the material in an organized, logical manner. Throughout class discussion and reading reflections, I have always stressed my belief in making connections. I believe that if students can connect what they are learning to something outside of school, something that they do everyday, they will retain the information. I also believe that you have to get students to care about what they are learning, by showing them how or why it directly affects them. Students are more likely to pay attention, and retain the material, if they know why they are learning about it, and how it affects their daily life. I kept these ideas in mind throughout creating my unit plan, and therefore my unit plan is built around these beliefs.
Unit Evaluation - Dania Schnell F09